Recently, I had a photo shoot with a lovely young lady named Emmy and her boxer, Hunter. Taking a portrait is easy; taking a good portrait is difficult.
Lighting is important in all photography. I like doing informal portraits outdoors when possible. With luck and a little time spent scouting locations, you can usually find a pretty background and take advantage of the sun, one of the best light sources around.
I found a comfortable spot for my models to sit, then set up my equipment.
I turned Emmy and Hunter toward me, positioned so the sun was behind them and slightly off to one side. I used the sun as a key light; it provided most of my light. By putting Emmy where the sun was over her head, it lit her pretty hair and added dimension to her face.
With the sun behind Emmy, however, her face was in shadow. I used my external flash as a fill light; it filled in the shadows and lit her face without overpowering the nice sunlight lighting the background.
Alas, sunlight isn’t always available for your key light. You can buy lighting kits that start in the low hundreds of dollars, or you can buy more complex studio lighting kits that can run thousands of dollars. However, it’s still nice to know that you can take a flash, a pretty location, and a fortuitously sunny day, and make a little magic.
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